And then
by Lady-SM
Summary: Wrapping up the story in what is probably a parallel universe concocted by the Devil but let's ignore that. After going to Scotland to visit her family, Alex comes home to her boys.
1. Chapter 1

Don't own Being Human. Just own a Being Human shaped hole in my heart.

xx

Alex stood on the doorstep of Honolulu Heights, half poised to knock, but for some reason she hesitated. It was as much her home as Hal and Tom's, but seeing as she'd always rentaghosted wherever she needed to in the past, she'd never actually had a key.

Eventually she ducked behind the house to the back door instead, where she knew Tom would have hidden a spare key. Sure enough, tucked inside an empty hanging basket, was the battered bright pink key to the back door that used to belong to George. Tom had told Alex that the girls had thought it was funny when they'd gotten it cut for him, even if George hadn't. It certainly wasn't inconspicuous, that was for sure.

Quietly, she let herself in - it was quite late after all and her boys were human again, they needed their beauty sleep now. The kitchen was dark, but a blueish light flickered at the end of the hall, and Alex crept into the living room to see which fool had left the telly on.

She stopped in the doorway, caught somewhere between bursting with laughter and bursting into tears. There, laid out on the couch with a book dangerously close to slipping from his grasp, was Hal, more dead to the world than Alex had ever seen him, and snoring quietly. Alex glanced at the TV and saw that Doctor Who was on, which made her chuckle softly. Hal must have fallen asleep a while ago, because she knew he wouldn't have chosen that himself.  
A few options sprung to mind - throwing something at him might be therapeutic, leaving him be until morning would be kinder, but Alex found she couldn't bring herself to wake him, nor to leave him for that matter. Instead, she kicked off her boots and padded silently over to the couch to ease the half read book from his loose grasp, taking care to slip the bookmark inside as she did so, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she slotted herself in front of him on the couch and curled up on her side to perve on David Tennant for a bit until he woke up. She smiled when she felt him stir behind her, but he only draped a warm arm across her waist and pulled her closer, resting his forehead against her back. Alex closed her eyes in contentment, and seconds later she too had fallen asleep.

Hours later, Alex awoke from a dreamless sleep, vaguely aware of Hal's arm tightening around her as he blinked back into consciousness. She felt him tense, before he realised who she was, and then he pushed himself up on his elbow to look at her. She kept her eyes closed but she knew she was smiling, and the dig in the ribs he gave her proved he knew she was awake too.

'You're back,' he observed, their eyes locking as she finally shifted to look at him over her shoulder.

She nodded; 'Yep. Couple of hours ago. Train took forever.'

'You should have called, I would - Tom and I - would have come to get you.' Hal said, his arm still draped across her. His thumb had started absently rubbing little circles on her denim clad hip.

Alex smiled. 'I know you would've, but... well it was nice really, sitting on a train, watching the world, with time to think about... everything.' Hal's jaw tightened slightly at the mention of 'everything', something Alex knew she'd never have been able to notice when he was a vampire. She thought it best to try to lighten the mood. 'Besides, if you'd come to get me I'd have missed out on your little Sleepy Beauty performance, and that was pretty special. Human Hal snores, by the way.'

He smirked, and shifted back against the back of the sofa, drawing her with him so she lay on her back, her big eyes gazing warily up at him.

'I don't recall Sleeping Beauty ending with platonic sofa spooning, unless that came after,' he said thickly, his eyes dropping to her lips for a split second. Sexy But Sleepy Hal was rather reminiscent of Sexy But Evil Hal, a fact that did not escape Alex, and though she hated herself for it she couldn't help but tense up ever so slightly when he dipped his head toward hers.

Hal froze instantly when he noticed her sudden intake of breath, and went to sit back, unable to stop a frown of disappointment that he'd apparently misread the signs from the woman nestled cosily against him, but Alex reached out a hand and held him in place, her fingers slipping easily into his hair.

'Sorry,' she said, quietly. 'Just... bad memories.'

'No, I'm sorry,' Hal said, his eyes full of concern and now so like her favourite version of him that she barely remembered that there could be any other. 'I shouldn't have - it's just you're back and I'm glad, and I've missed you. But we should-'

Alex cut him off, reaching up and pressing her lips to his.

The kiss was chaste, all things considered, but it did the job and cleared the tension, and when Alex pulled back she couldn't help but laugh at the dazed look on his face.

'Oh wipe that sloppy grin of your face you muppet, you'd think you'd never been kissed before.' Alex said, stretching out on the sofa and appreciating every little twinge. It felt good to ache.

'It's been five hundred years since I've been a human man kissed by a human woman,' Hal pointed out, satisfied by Alex's raised eyebrow of realisation. She clearly hadn't thought about it that way. Then she clearly thought about it another way, and threaded her fingers into his hair again, more firmly this time, and pulled him down so his body fitted flush against hers.

'In which case, I think we can do a little better than that, don't you?' And he readily obliged.


	2. Chapter 2

It was after midnight when Tom got back from the hotel. He'd sent Hal home hours ago, recognising that the former vampire was about to fall asleep on his feet if he worked any more hours that week, and refusing to take no for an answer.

It was a tough business, employing and managing an entire new staff and attempting to sweep a city full of unexplained suicides under the carpets in the eyes of a limited tourism industry. Hal had been working around the clock to get the hotel back on its feet, and while Tom couldn't understand why at the beginning - they were free to do as they pleased now, after all - he came to notice the anxious checking of phones and messages that came from a man desperately trying to avoid thinking about a woman.

It was quite simple to Tom really; Hal and Alex liked each other, and they hadn't been together before properly because Alex was a ghost, and because Hal was sort of the reason she was dead. Now, Hal and Alex liked each other, and Alex wasn't a ghost, and Hal wasn't a vampire any more, which was sort of the reason she'd died in the first place. He had no doubts that things wouldn't work out in the end, because the whole situation was just too simple to go wrong.

When Tom got home, he too noticed the TV blaring away and shuffled through to the living room ready to read out the riot act to his former vampire house mate.

'I thought you were supposed to be getting an early-'

Tom hadn't noticed the duffel bag in the hallway, and so really wasn't prepared to be faced with a scantily clad Hal and Alex, tangled together on the couch. The pair of them were frozen mid grope and looking at him sheepishly.

Tom stiffened, and turned immediately to face the wall.

'Alex, you're back,' he said, all awkwardness that made Alex stuff Hal's discarded t-shirt in her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Tom continued, undeterred. 'We've made up a bed for you in your old room, in case you came to visit or indeed to stay. Alternatively there is half a bed in Hal's room of course, if that should suit you better.'

That did it for Alex, and she let out a very unladylike snort of laughter, and buried her face in Hal's shoulder, her own shaking uncontrollably. Hal took that moment to quickly push her straps up her arms and back onto her shoulders, in an attempt to maintain some semblance of dignity on her part. He himself remained shirtless, and very grateful of the convenient draping of Alex's legs across his lower body.

Tom, still stiff as a board and not looking at either of them, whistled a few nondescript notes while rocking back on his heels, and then without further ado he was out of the room like a shot with barely a 'see you in the morning'.

When he had gone, Alex reluctantly brought her head up, still biting her lip to stop the bouts of nervous laughter that continued to issue forth. She locked eyes with Hal and he smiled apologetically.

'I forgot Tom was due home from the hotel,' he admitted. 'Sorry,'

'I think it's Tom who needs the apology,' Alex pointed out, suddenly very aware that she was still sprawled across him, and that he was still shirtless. 'Still, it is late... We should probably go to bed - you know, separately and stuff,' she added when Hal's pupils dilated of their own accord. His eyes said one thing but his mouth said;

'Yes, of course. You've had a long day of travelling, you must be tired.'

Alex smiled and nodded, rolling off him and arranging her vest top properly again. 'So, see you in the morning then?'

'Yes, see you in the morning. Goodnight Alex.'

Alex got the impression that Hal could use a few moments to himself, judging by the way that he hadn't attempted to move his discarded t-shirt from his lap just yet, so she got up from the sofa, grabbed her bag from the hall and disappeared upstairs in search of the room that had been hers for a year, but only slept in once.

It took her seconds to strip out of her clothes and throw on the old t-shirt of her dad's that she'd been wearing as pyjamas ever since she'd got back.

The bedroom was sparse, and a bit grotty, just like everything was in the house in Barry, but the moment her head hit the pillow Alex knew she was home, and drifted into a heavy, pleasant slumber.


	3. Chapter 3

Just so you know, I'm completely aware that this is shameless fluff. I'm okay with that if you are.

I do have a bit of plot that I'm going to try and crowbar in when I've satisfied my need for general Hal/Alex happiness.

Thanks for the lovely reviews

xx

The next morning, Alex awoke to a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had started the night before when Tom came in and interrupted her and Hal, though she'd managed to push it down and ignore it. Now though, in the dim grey of her bedroom, with only the sporadic sound of seagulls to distract her, she couldn't ignore it any longer. She and Hal still needed to talk.

Three weeks ago she hadn't really wanted to. She just wanted to sit with her boys, watch Antiques Road Show and drink more tea that is medically advisable.

Then the next day, she knew she needed to go home. She told Hal and Tom over breakfast, and since the pair of them flatly refused to let her go alone, they'd all piled into Hal's car and spent the day driving up to Edinburgh. The journey was quiet, and by the time they passed into Scotland even Tom had stopped piping up optimistically from the back seat. Alex's eyes kept suddenly welling up with unexpected tears, and the one time one actually did manage to fall, Hal noticed and passed her his handkerchief discreetly. Alex laughed, gratefully. Of course Hal carried a handkerchief.

They stopped eventually, at the top of the street where Alex's family still lived. Suddenly she panicked, she'd been hoping that by the time they got there she'd have worked out a way of telling them without giving her dad a heart attack, but nothing sprung to mind. In the end, she turned to Hal.

'I think I need to phone him,' she said. 'If I just show up on the doorstep he'll have a stroke or something. And he'll just kill you two.'

Tom said nothing, but quickly rooted his mobile phone out of his pocket and passed it to her, since she didn't have a new one yet. Alex took it with a smile, proceeded to dial all but one of the numbers, and then stared at the phone for a good five minutes.

'Er - Alex, I think you're missing a number,' Tom said, trying to be helpful. Hal shot him a look and shook his head minutely, and Tom sat back in his seat with a sigh.

Carefully, Hal took the phone out of Alex's hands, looking at her intently to check if she minded. She released it like a hot coal, and Hal's thumb hovered over the keyboard.

'Nine,' Alex said, quietly, and Hal pressed his thumb down, and held the phone up to his ear.

Alex tensed when she heard the ringing, and squeezed her eyes shut when she heard a voice answer the phone - her father.

'Hello, am I speaking with Mr Millar?' Hal asked, politeness overshadowing awkwardness. He noticed Alex beginning to shake and he reached out his free hand to grab hers and hold them steady. 'Mr Millar, my name is Hal Yorke. I'm a friend of your daughter, Alex.' There was silence down the other end of the line. Alex could actually hear her own heart beating. 'There's no easy way to say this,' Hal continued, 'but Alex isn't dead. In fact, she's very much alive.'

After that, there certainly was not silence from the other end of the line. Hal had to hold the phone away from his ear for a moment.

'I assure you, I wouldn't joke about this,' he said, still calm but gripping Alex's hand all the more tightly. 'Alex will explain everything when she sees you, but you're going to have to try and suspend your disbelief and trust what you see in front of you. She is alive and well, and on her way to see you. We just thought it might be safer to call first rather than risk any unfortunate accidents...'

Alex grabbed the phone from Hal just as her father had launched into a rant at him. Hearing his voice in her ear almost stopped her heart again, but only for a second.

'Dad - dad it's me,' she said, and he stopped yelling at once. 'Look, it's true alright? I'm not dead, I'm okay. It's a really really long story but I'm okay. And we're just around the corner so we're coming to see you now. Don't freak out.'

Alex spoke to her father, tears streaming mercilessly down her cheeks, while Hal started the car again and turned them down the road toward the Millar's house. As they pulled up, Alex's dad came rushing out of the house, white as a sheet, and stopped in his tracks when his daughter - his actual living, breathing daughter - climbed out of the passenger side and ran at him. The pair embraced, Alex's arms wrapped as tightly around him as they had been in Hatch's dream, and her dad's knees gave way and sent them both crumpling to the ground. Tom and Hal got out of the car but remained standing by it, unwilling to intrude on the moment, but just as unwilling to leave their former ghost to deal with this on her own.

Hal was the one to notice the boys hovering by the door way. The youngest looked on, his jaw hanging open in a combination of disbelief and horror. The elder boys looked uncomfortable, and unable to deal with the open display of emotions taking place on the damp lawn in front of them.

'Alex,' Hal called softly, and her head snapped up immediately. He nodded to her brothers and their predicament, and she let out an undignified wail and scrambled to her feet, hurrying over to them.

'Oh boys,' she exclaimed, wrapping the youngest - Decky, Tom and Hal remembered - up in an enormous hug and reaching for the other two, who stepped awkwardly into her embrace. All three boys appeared to be in shock, but when their dad joined them, trying to gather all four of his children into his arms, Alex's brothers broke down too, and the little family clung to each other.

'Hal,' Tom said, nudging his friend. 'I think we should be off really, don't you?'

Hal frowned, torn between his two friends. He wanted to be there for Alex, but Tom was right, it wasn't really their place to interfere. Hal found himself wondering if Alex was really going to tell her father EVERYTHING, because if she did he'd probably want to get as far away from there as he possibly could, seeing as he was the reason she'd been killed in the first place.

'Yes, of course,' Hal reluctantly agreed, wondering if they should say anything or just leave Alex to it. He wasn't a fan of this new uncertainty that came with being human. Just then, Alex extracted herself from her family and turned back to them.

'Guys - dad, boys, this is Hal and Tom. I'd say they've looked after me but...'

'I think it's been rather more the other way around,' Hal said with a smile. Tom nodded.

Alex's dad shook both Hal and Tom's hands, thanking them over and over for bringing his daughter back safely to him. Hal caught Alex's eye at his, and she squeezed his arm reassuringly. If she was going to tell her father what really happened, she wasn't going to add that particular detail.

'Will you stay for dinner?' Alex's dad was asking them.

'Actually, we were just saying we should probably be getting back,' Hal said, glancing at Alex to gauge her reaction. He tried not to be too pleased that she looked disappointed.

'Yes, Hal and I are manager and assistant manager of a hotel,' Tom said. 'We have responsibilities to the tourism industry you see.'

'The tourists in Barry are mostly busy being dead right at the moment,' Alex pointed out. 'But you know, go if you want. Whatever.' But she said this with a grin she couldn't help, and hugged Tom tightly. 'I'll see you soon, promise,' she whispered.

When she turned to Hal, the farewell wasn't so simple. Tom chose that moment to become fascinated with something on the bottom of his shoe, and Alex's dad ushered her brothers back inside to make some tea and hurriedly clear up the kitchen, which was all kinds of messy that he knew his daughter wouldn't appreciate, recently risen from the dead or not.

Always the initiator, Alex stepped forward and Hal raised his arms to envelope her in a warm hug, that went on far longer than the one with Tom, and was much harder to break.

'If you really want us to stay, we can,' Hal said quietly.

'No, Tom's right,' Alex replied, her voice slightly muffled by his jacket. 'I need to talk to them, properly, and you two need to get back to the hotel after... everything. But I'll ring you, or text you or something. When I get a real phone again.'

'Alright. Well then, good luck,' Hal said, and pressed a kiss to her forehead before stepping back and letting her go. Alex looked at them both for a long moment, and then took a breath and turned to skip back to the house. Her dad held the door open for her, and gave Hal and Tom a nod before closing it behind them.

Tom went back to the car, but Hal remained frozen for a moment.

'Come on mate,' Tom said, opening the car door. 'She'll come back in a couple of weeks, she said so.'

'She might,' Hal agreed, finally turning back to the car.

'Course she will, she's sound is Alex. Now come on.'

Alex watched them go through the kitchen window, and despite the emotional reunion with her family, she felt her stomach churn even more at the site of their car driving away, leaving her behind. She looked around herself, at the messy living room and her fussing dad, and she knew then that her return was only temporary. She didn't belong in Edinburgh, she wasn't sure if she belonged in Barry, but she belonged with Tom and Hal - especially Hal - wherever they may be.


	4. Chapter 4

Lying in bed in Barry, Alex ran the events of the past three weeks over and over in head. Telling her dad had been hard, mainly because the truth was so ridiculous, but she started at the beginning, glossing over Hal's involvement in her death by making it sound like an unfortunate accident that she just happened to run into another vampire on the same day as their date.

She knew she and Hal had a lot to talk about. Just because they were human again, it didn't make everything that had happened just disappear. When they woke up, after they defeated Hatch, Tom had asked Hal which version of himself was there - Good or Bad. Hal had said neither... or both. Alex knew there were other sides of him, even as a human, and considering she'd noticed by the neatly arranged sofa cushions and perfectly folded corners of her bedding, it didn't look like Hal had escaped the OCD habits of Good Hal, so she doubted he'd escape the glutton for punishment addictive personality of Bad Hal either.

It all depended on what came next. Barry for a bit, of course, just to get their bearings, but Alex wanted to live, and she was pretty sure Hal did too. They just needed to figure out how they would manage to do that together, and how to make sure Tom was okay too.

She lay there, staring at the ceiling, for half an hour or more, until the smell of something wonderful wafted upstairs and drew her from her reverie.

Bacon.

Approximately three and a half seconds later, Alex was up and out the door.

Tom averted his eyes when Alex first came careering into the kitchen in nothing but an oversized t-shirt and a pair of fluffy slippers. Hal, who was in his suit trousers and shirt - with an apron of course - didn't seem quite as offended by the sight.

'Well, good morning,' he said, eyeing her ensemble with a smirk. 'So these are the cutting edge fashions we've been missing for a year then?'

'Says the man wearing a flowery pinny,' Alex scoffed, swiping some bacon out of the pan. 'Mmm, oh god that's good.'

'It will still be good when it's on a plate, accompanied by eggs and French toast,' Hal said, shielding the rest of their breakfast from her sticky fingers.

'Alright, alright,' Alex put up her hands in surrender and went to join Tom at the table. Once she sat down, Tom felt he could look at her again, since her bare legs were hidden by the table. 'So what are you boys doing today? Any guests at the hotel yet?'

'Hardly any,' Tom said, but he looked optimistic. 'Fully staffed again though - that bloke Rook's old department gave the hotel a big pay off to get it back on its feet. We've been interviewing, haven't we Hal?'

'I've been interviewing. You've been rescuing strays. Tom offers jobs to anyone so long as they have a nice smile and a friendly face.' Hal said pointedly, putting a full plate of fried goodness in front of each of them, before untying his apron and pouring himself a modest bowl of muesli when he sat down to join them. Alex eyed his bowl in disbelief.

'Hal thinks he's going to get fat,' Tom told Alex, tucking into his own breakfast with gusto.

'That's ridiculous,' she laughed. Hal raised an eyebrow in the direction of her plate.

'Is it? An excess amount of processed meat, saturated fat and carbohydrate practically deep fried in more fat? My body isn't undead any more, but it might be if I put enough of that into it.'

Alex looked down at her plate, then considered her own waistline momentarily, and decided the calories were definitely worth it. She took an indulgent bite of French toast and tipped her head back in ecstasy, over acting a bit but not much. Hal seriously knew how to make French toast.

'It's your funeral,' Hal commented, and Alex glowered at him. Friendly as things were, it still seemed a might too early for jokes like that around the former ghost, and she wasn't going to let him get away with it yet.

Moments later, Tom, who wolfed down his food at record breaking speed (no pun intended), pushed his chair out from the table and patted his stomach appreciatively.

'Thanks for that Hal mate, my deep fried saturated fat was well nice.'

'You're very welcome, Tom. I hope your arteries will forgive me.'

'So, I'm gonna go and open up the front desk, make sure them two new restaurant lads are up to scratch. Why don't you have a morning at home and come down just in time for the lunch rush?'

'No Tom, you stayed late last night. It's more than my turn.'

'Yes, but you're better at keeping Alex company than I am,' he said this with no trace of irony, but that didn't stop Alex biting her lip to stop herself from laughing, suddenly subject to flashbacks from the night before. 'You can make it up to me by switching the rota this weekend so I can go and visit Alison.'

'Well… that seems fair,' Hal agreed, at a loss of what else to say. Tom grinned and dropped his plate in the sink, before buttoning his work shirt and tying his tie, making a grab for his suit jacket on the way out of the kitchen.

'See you kids later then,' Tom said, and then he was gone.

Hal and Alex shared a moment of comfortable, bemused silence, their gazes meeting across the table when they heard the front door slam shut.

'So… welcome back to Barry,' Hal joked, and Alex laughed.

'Yeah, never a dull moment,' she agreed. 'Look, you don't have to stay and babysit me you know, I'll be fine. You can go to the hotel if you want.'

'Alex, never let there be any question that I would prefer to do anything other than stay with you. Here, or anywhere.' Hal said seriously.

That caught Alex by surprise, and she thought at first that she was supposed to laugh at that too, but Hal's face was deadly serious, and so instead she swallowed heavily, and took another bite of toast. She took her time to chew it within an inch of its life, and when she swallowed it she felt like it caught in her throat – or maybe that was her heart leaping up and about where it didn't belong.

'Look, Hal… we need to have a conversation,' she started, unsure exactly of what that conversation needed to be.

'Yes, we do,' he agreed.

'Before I went home,' Alex started, awkwardly, 'I asked you what there was for me here and you said-'

'Me,' Hal stepped in. 'I said there was me.'

'Yes.' Alex sounded almost relieved, as though she thought she might have dreamt that conversation. 'And I've thought about this a lot. You've been amazing since… since it happened. You – and Tom – taking me home, being there at the end of a phone these last few weeks when it's been really, _really _hard for me, being home with my family and back in an almost normal life. The thing is…' she paused, and found she couldn't find the words. She frowned, and looked down at her hands, which fumbled with the frayed hem of her t-shirt, and Hal's newly beating heart sank to his shoes.

'Alex,' he said quietly, not trusting himself to speak much above a whisper. 'It's okay, I understand,' even though he didn't, really. 'Whatever was between us before, I sacrificed that a hundred times over in this past year. Not least when you were still alive. I can't expect you to just forget that because the blood lust is gone. Being human again doesn't immediately make me a better man, and I understand that you can't trust me to be one, after everything.'

'Wait – what?' He looked so forlorn that Alex almost threw herself across the table right there. 'No, Hal, that's not what I meant. I mean, _yes _you screwed up this last year, a few more than a hundred times actually, but I'm over that – well, I'm almost over it. Being human doesn't make you a better man, _you _make you a better man. I know you're a bloody weirdo sometimes, with your paperclips and your sugar packets and all your random OCD shit, and I'll admit that I've not quite got it clear in my head yet how much of the old you was the human you and how much was the vampire, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is living in a B&B in Barry, with a boyfriend who runs a poxy little hotel with an embarrassingly high staff turnover for the rest of my days, squeezing out my very own fat little versions of my annoying as hell brothers and working in the cornershop until I get my bus pass and die.'

Hal blinked in confusion, and Alex sighed and pushed her plate aside, reaching for his clasped hands across the table.

'Hal, I want you, okay? I just don't know if I want this life for my second chance. I need to know what you want to do with yours – and don't just say you want to be with me because there's nowhere else you'd prefer to be, ever, because while I'll admit that little line made me almost wet my pants a bit, I need a little bit more detail.

Hal stared down at their entwined hands for a moment, and took one long, steady breath. In Alex's crude terms, shit just got real. After what seemed like an eternity, he looked up into her eyes.

'Alex, this thing with the hotel, what Tom and I are doing, it's just something we have to do right now. I've lived for five hundred years and seen so much, and I'll admit that now I have a chance to live I do want a relatively quiet life, but I don't want to stay here forever. I've travelled the whole world, and aside from Hull, there's nowhere I've been that I couldn't live forever quite happily. If you want to climb mountains, I'll recommend the ones with the best hotels so you don't have to sleep in a tent. If you want a condo on the beach in Florida, I'll buy one and we'll get on a plane tomorrow. If you want to journey to the moon, I'll find a way. I just – if there is a chance that we can work, after everything, I want us to take it.'

Alex was never one for tears growing up, but since she'd gone on holiday to Barry and been killed by a vengeful vampire, she'd gotten rather more familiar with them. They ran tracks down her cheeks now, and she didn't dare open her mouth to speak unless she cried like a girl in some embarrassing way. Thankfully, Hal recognised this, because Hal was Hal and he _got _her somehow, after everything, and instead of forcing her to confront the reality of their situation he pushed her chair out from the table with his feet and tugged on her hands that were still held tightly in his, so that she stood up and let him pull her around the table and into his lap.

'I'm so sorry I've been such an utter wanker so often in the time you've known me,' he whispered, and she laughed through her tears as his arms tightened around her. 'Alex Millar, you are most wonderful, beautiful, infuriating woman I have ever met, and I don't deserve you. But I hope you'll let me keep you anyway.'

Alex couldn't take any more, she clamped her hands tightly on either side of his head and kissed him for all she was worth, and he kissed her back like she was his first taste of oxygen in five hundred years.


	5. Chapter 5

When Hal showed up at the hotel later – about twenty minutes after the lunch rush – Tom spoke to him for a full half an hour, talking him through the pros and cons of their new staff members, before he pointed out the lipstick smudge on his neck.

'Funny that,' Tom observed. 'I didn't think Alex was really a lipstick person.' And that was all that was said on the matter.

Alex herself showed up just after six, laden with Tesco's bags, only to tell the boys that she expected them home by seven thirty for lasagne and wine, and Bill and Ted on DVD. That was when she learned that neither Hal nor Tom were familiar with the cinematic genius of Bill and Ted, and vowed that their evening had just become a classic movie double bill, because she had the sequel as well.

When she said goodbye, she dragged Hal outside with her and kissed him soundly, and told him not to worry because she'd bought skimmed milk, lean mince and plenty of salad. She patted his stomach in what was intended as an act of playful patronisation, but her fingers lingered just a little too long on the hard planes of muscle and their next kiss was even more intense and full of promises they both fully intended to keep at the next possible opportunity.

That evening, Alex was hailed lasagne queen, and Hal lamented the fifties, suggesting she might like to try and embrace the attitudes of a simpler time, when her culinary skills might be appreciated on a regular daily basis, and she responded by whacking him hard on the arse with the tea towel in her hands.

The first bottle of wine went down very well, and the second followed just as quickly. When they were out of wine and moved onto the rest of the house's alcohol supply (in this case, half a bottle of whisky and a bottle of babycham) the second Bill and Ted movie had finished and Alex had her head in Hal's lap, singing along to 'God gave rock n roll' every other chorus and so completely content that if she'd have died right there she would have walked straight through a door.

Tom, really not in the habit of mixing his drinks when one of the drinks on offer was babycham, admitted defeat just after midnight. He said goodnight to Hal and Alex, reminded Hal that he was covering his shift the next day, and headed off to bed. The drunken pair were left to their own devices as the credits rolled.

'Hal?' Alex murmured, half asleep and perfectly content with using his thigh as a pillow.

'Yes?' Hal wasn't nearly so hammered, but Alex's innocent proximity to his… gentleman's area… was enough to sober him up after a whole bottle of absinthe.

'I love this, you know?' Alex continued, reaching out blindly to take his hand in hers. 'I mean it, I love this. Not this house, or this town, or this film – though this is a fucking brilliant film – but I love… this.'

Hal smirked, and bent forward to press a kiss to her temple. Alex hummed in appreciation, and grabbed the back of his head, holding him in place.

'Can we go to bed?' she whispered, her brow furrowed as she tried to keep track of what she was saying. Hal sighed and shook his head, though he knew she couldn't see it.

'I'll take you to bed – your bed,' he agreed. 'But I know what you're suggesting Alex and even if you were awake, you're disgracefully drunk.'

'Such a fucking gentleman,' Alex muttered, and opened her eyes at last. She rolled over onto her back and Hal tried his best to ignore the image of her laid out across him, but it was difficult to do when she seemed so intent on seducing him.

'Believe me, as soon as you sober up, I have absolutely zero intention of being a gentleman,' Hal assured her, his fingers brushing across the exposed skin of her stomach before he could stop himself. Alex grinned and pushed herself up.

'Coffee?'

'Alex,'

'What?'

'Do you really want to do this now?'

Alex pretended to think for a moment. 'Hmm, well, I've been celibate and _dead _for a year, and you want to buy me a condo on the beach in Florida, and you've got a stonking hard on that's been sticking in my back for the last twenty minutes, so I'd say yes, I do want to do this now.'

Hal stared at her, his jaw comically close to skimming the floor. Alex had to laugh, he looked so very terrified.

'Oh fine, be like that then. But don't make me sleep in that boring bedroom, it reminds me of a whole year of _never _sleeping in that boring bedroom.'

'There are several other bedrooms that could –'

'Hal,'

'Alright, fine,' Hal relented. 'But put some proper pyjamas on. The image of you in that insufficient t-shirt has haunted me all day.'

'Nice choice of words,'

'I can't help it. It was more insistent than you were when you were an actual ghost.'

Alex, at a loss to think of any other way in her current addled state, yanked his head down to hers to snog him silent. Hal didn't object, in fact despite his reluctance to take her upstairs he seemed perfectly happy to pull her up onto his lap and wrap his arms around her waist as she quickly settled a knee either side of his hips.

'Mmm, yeah, you're the poster boy for abstinence right now,' she teased, though she certainly wasn't being innocent either. In a moment of fitful abandon she ground herself against him and grinned as he groaned, unable to help himself.

'You're not exactly helping the situation,' Hal pointed out, grabbing her hips firmly to hold them still, which only served to remind him just how close she was to him.

'Fine, come on then,' Alex sighed and slipped off his lap, standing up with a spring in her step and holding out her hand for his. Hal eyed her open palm with suspicion. 'I promise I won't seduce you,' Alex said, rolling her eyes. 'Believe it or not, I'm alright with just… sleeping… with you.'

She looked suddenly afraid of his potential rejection, and the way her eyes grew wide and fearful just tore at Hal's heart. He grabbed her hand reassuringly and kissed her palm gently.

'I am more than alright with just sleeping with you,' he said. 'I don't want you to think I'm not… it's just I don't want to…'

'You don't want to fuck things up. I know, I get it. Neither do I,' Alex assured him, pulling him to his feet. 'And we won't,' she promised.

Together they made their way up stairs, their fingers laced together the whole time. Hal handled the living room light and Alex switched off the TV with her toe, so as to avoid letting go – she really didn't think her body would let her let go anyway.

Hal escorted Alex to her 'boring bedroom', and lingered in the doorway as she sorted through her clothes in search of something 'decent' to wear to sleep in. Eventually she looked back at him sheepishly.

'Will you believe me if I say I literally don't have anything to wear except this t-shirt? My dad gave most of my stuff away to charity, I did a Primarni shop last weekend but it wasn't exactly fruitful.'

Hal considered this for a moment and then held up a finger, signalling for her to stay put while he disappeared across the hall to his own room. He came back and handed her something very carefully folded. Alex shook out the item and stared back at him.

'You seriously think me wearing your boxers in bed is going to help this chastity belt situation?' she asked, laughing at him but unwilling to let go of her new sleepwear all the same.

Hal shrugged uncomfortably, he was trying so very hard to do the right thing and all he could think about was how _hard_ it was being so bloody human and so bloody close to Alex.

She noticed his discomfort, because she was Alex and she _got _him somehow, after everything, and so she ushered him out of the room with a peck and a promise that she'd see him shortly. When he retired gratefully to his own room, Alex shrugged out of her clothes and paused momentarily to critique herself in the oval mirror in the corner.

She hadn't worn her lucky underwear. After everything, she couldn't quite bring herself to handle extreme underwiring since her resurrection, just in case she died mid moment and got stuck like that for all eternity all over again. Instead, she'd settled for simple black cotton, and she figured that even though Hal had no intention (lies) of getting into what were effectively his own pants tonight, she thought he might appreciate it all the same. Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she pulled on her dad's old t-shirt – suddenly wondering if it was appropriate to be wearing her dad's t-shirt in this situation – and Hal's carefully ironed boxers, and headed across the hall to Hal's room without a second glance at the room of boredom.

She knocked softly, though she knew she didn't need to really. Hal opened it, himself clad in loose cotton pyjama bottoms and a white t-shirt, and stepped back to invite her in. Alex stepped over the threshold and gave him a little twirl.

'Wholesome enough?' she asked, indicating her ensemble. Hal stared at her and shook his head, closing his eyes tightly.

'Not in the least, but you'll have to do,' he replied, sitting down on the edge of his bed carefully, where Alex noticed he'd already pulled back the covers. She rolled her eyes and darted around to the other side of the bed, slipping her legs under the duvet and pulling it up to cover her up to her neck. She twisted onto her side and reached up to tug on his arm.

'Come to bed, Hal,' she said, quietly. He turned his head to look over his shoulder, and the sight of Alex's head poking above his covers was almost too much to take. He took a breath and pushed himself further back on the bed to join her, allowing her to throw the duvet over him and suddenly very aware that he was once again very close to a very scantily clad Alex, without the imminent arrival of Tom or an approaching shift at the hotel to save him. She lay on her side, facing him, while he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. A few moments passed and Alex began to feel uncomfortable again.

'Hal… if you really don't want me to be here I can go back to my room. I just… with what you said earlier…'

Hal shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, before twisting suddenly to face her, taking her hands in his.

'No, Alex, believe me it's not that. You just… you have to understand this is difficult for me. Not because of you, but because of me. It's been so long since I've been able to trust myself, I don't know what I'll do. I don't want to hurt you,'

'You won't,' Alex insisted, and she said it with so much confidence that he almost believed it. He reached for her, carefully, and when she tucked herself against him, her head resting perfectly in the hollow of his shoulder, his arms tightened around her waist of their own accord and he honestly couldn't remember a time in his life when everything had felt so perfect.

'This is nice,' Alex whispered, and Hal hummed in agreement, his voice reverberating through his chest and into her ear. 'See?' Alex turned her head and pressed a kiss to the warm skin of his throat, 'nothing to worry about,' and with that the two of them drifted off to sleep.


End file.
